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July 30, 2013Last updated on 7/31/13.

Here at DefenseReview (DR), we cover the latest and greatest tactical tech, including military tech, but all of that stuff won't matter all that much if the United States' power grid gets taken out by an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon/bomb, sending America back into the industrial age or earlier for months or even years. That's why we agree with R. James Woolsey's and Dr. Peter Vincent Pry's assessment that Congress pass the SHIELD Act, which would, according to them, keep the above scenario from happening to us, or, more specifically, being done to us.

Woolsey and Pry wrote a pretty convincing piece on the necessity of the SHIELD Act for Breitbart Big Peace, and DR recommends our readers read it. Here at DR, we mostly cover the tools of the tactical trade, including tactical weapons, weapons accessories, equipment, gear and training, but we also keep our eye on the big picture–and the Woolsey/Pry piece is about as big picture as it gets for Homeland Security. If we can't protect our electric grid infrastructure, including communications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water, then what's the point?

So, ruggedizing an protecting America's electric/electronic power grid against EMP threats of all types should be given the highest priority. Understand, it's not just EMP weapons from Russia, China, Iran, etc. that we have to worry about. The Sun can hit us with powerful EMP pulses, as well, that can cause dangerous geomagnetic storms, including something really scary called a geomagnetic superstorm. One of these, called the Carrington Event, occured in 1859, and it was anything but pleasant. But here's the line that scared the shit out of us here at DR:

Another Carrington Event that would collapse life-sustaining electric grids and critical infrastructures everywhere on Earth is someday inevitable.

So, between all those big, nasty foreign meanies out there, and the SUN, the SHIELD Act looks like a national security imperative that Defense Review supports. "Enactment of SHIELD and protection of the national electric grid will secure our nation against an otherwise inevitable EMP catastrophe," say Woolsey and Pry. DR's in.

“Pass the SHIELD ACT” to Protect Against Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack: R. James Woolsey and Dr. Peter Vincent Pry Issue the Warning
by David Crane

About David Crane

David Crane started publishing online in 2001. Since that time, governments, military organizations, Special Operators (i.e. professional trigger pullers), agencies, and civilian tactical shooters the world over have come to depend on Defense Review as the authoritative source of news and information on "the latest and greatest" in the field of military defense and tactical technology and hardware, including tactical firearms, ammunition, equipment, gear, and training.